All About Jim Croce's Son A.J. — and How He’s Celebrating the Late ‘Time in a Bottle’ Singer Today

Mar. 15, 2025

Left: Jim Croce performing; Right: A.J. Croce at The GRAMMY Museum on July 22, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. .Photo:Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images; Rebecca Sapp/WireImage

Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images; Rebecca Sapp/WireImage

Jim Croce’s legacy is carried on through his son, A.J. Croce.

The “Time in a Bottle” singer and his wife, Ingrid Croce, welcomed their first and only child together in 1971, son Adrian James “A.J.” Croce. Sadly, days before A.J. turned 2, his father died in a plane crash in September 1973, leaving behind his family.

Jim’s lasting mark on the music industry has lived on through his son, who was inspired to start playing music himself, including the guitar. He told PEOPLE in January 2024 that after a house fire destroyed many of the family’s belongings when he was a teen, one of his dad’s guitars — a 1933 Gibson L-00 — was able to be salvaged, and he was “inspired” to learn to play it.

Even years after his father’s death, A.J. has continued to find new ways of connecting with Jim. He said that in recent years, he discovered a homemade tape that his dad recorded performing a variety of blues and folk songs.

“There were deep cuts of Bessie Smith, Pink Anderson, Mississippi John Hurt, and Skip James. Old Blues, old country,” he explained to PEOPLE. “Every song that he played was a song I had been playing since I was a teen, but I’d never heard him play them!It made the hair on my neck stand up.”

Here’s everything to know about Jim Croce’s son, A.J. Croce.

He was born in 1971

Jim Croce’s son A.J. Croce as a child.A.J. Croce/Instagram

A.J. Croce/Instagram

Jim and Ingrid welcomed A.J., born Adrian James Croce, on Sept. 28, 1971.

A.J. said that songs including “Don’t Mess Around with Jim,” “New York’s Not My Home,” “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” and “Rapid Roy (The Stock Car Boy)” were all written at the family’s home in Pennsylvania where he was raised.

His parents were both musicians

Husband and wife duo The Croces (Jim Croce and Ingrid Croce) pose for a portrait circa 1966 in New York City.Tony Bruno/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Tony Bruno/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

A.J. inherited his musical abilities from both of his parents.

Jim and Ingrid met during the 1960s, when they were both musicians in their own right. She described the duo as “bohemians” who were “performing the college concert circuit and at hootenannies and bars that erupted into near-riots”on her website. Ingrid shared that they had signed to Capitol Records and were able to tour across the United States.

Before his career took off, Jim balanced side jobs while still pursuing music. It wasn’t until 1971 that he began to gain recognition as an artist, which included performances onThe Tonight Showand having several Top 10 songs to his name.

His dad’s hit song “Time in a Bottle” was written for him

Jim Croce and Ingrid Croce with their son A.J. Croce.A.J. Croce/Instagram

“I went to a doctor to find out if I could get pregnant and after he examined me, he told me that I was pregnant,” Ingrid toldTop 2000 à Go-Goin 2012. “I told Jim and Jim had this look of utter fear and excitement because he knew that if we were going to have a child, he needed to become a professional musician. That night, he sat down at the kitchen table and he started to write ‘Time in a Bottle.’ “

When it comes to his own connection with his dad’s music, A.J. said that “Time in a Bottle” has more meaning to him than some of his other songs, calling it “incredibly emotional” during a June 2022 segment ofCBS Sunday Morning.

“It was written for me,” he said. “It sums up this emotion that he felt for my mother, for myself. I feel all kinds of things. I feel joy, a sense of thoughtfulness.”

His dad died before he turned 2

Jim Croce with his son A.J. Croce.A.J. Croce/Instagram

A.J. was just shy of his second birthday when his father was killed in a plane crash on Sept. 20, 1973, along with five others.

After nearly a decade of supplementing his income as a musician with other jobs, Jim hit his stride in the 18 months before his death, earning three top 10 songs. He was on a charter plane in Natchitoches, La., after a show, heading to his next concert, when the aircraft crashed into a tree during takeoff and killed everyone onboard.

Four days after the fatal crash, Ingrid received a letter that Jim mailed before the flight had taken off, which included a message for their son, PEOPLEreported in January 2024. The message read, “Give a kiss to my little man and tell him Daddy loves him. Remember, it’s the first 60 years that count, and I’ve got 30 more to go.”

Despite being young when his dad died, A.J.shared on Instagramin June 2024 that he is able to remember his father, though he described the feeling as “dreamlike.”

“I remember him holding me,” he recalled in a video. “I remember him playing guitar and singing. I remember feeling safe, but it’s all very ethereal.”

He was legally blind for several years during childhood

Portrait of American singer-songwriter AJ Croce on April 15, 2018 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.Paul Bergen/Redferns/Getty Images

Paul Bergen/Redferns/Getty Images

A.J. was temporarily blind for a portion of his childhood. The musician opened up about the ordeal on a January 2022 episode oftheBlind Abilitiespodcast, sharing that he was blind for six years of his life from ages 4 to 10.

During the episode, he said that “the events that led” to his blindness “were even more traumatic than the blindness itself.” He described his mother’s then-boyfriend after his father’s death as “very abusive."

Ingrid sent A.J. away to boarding school after witnessing how he was being treated. However, A.J. had an untreated ear infection that was not dealt with.

When his mom visited him, she realized that he had gone blind and took him to the hospital. A.J. said that his infection had worsened to the point where he had what he described as “brain tumor syndrome.”

Today, A.J. is partially sighted and can see while wearing glasses out of his left eye. Due to being temporarily blind from ages 4 to 10, he experiences “curious things” with his vision, including difficulty seeing contrast and depth of field.

He is a professional musician

A.J. Croce singing at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach.Jeff Moore/ZUMA Press Wire

Jeff Moore/ZUMA Press Wire

In the decades after his father’s death, A.J. has been able to sustain a successful career as a musician.

His experience with music started when he was a child, with A.J. sharing on an October 2023 episode oftheYou Matter!podcastthat he would start to gravitate toward the piano before he could even walk.

“There was one at my grandmother’s house. It was something I loved,” he said. “Growing up there was an upright piano at my house and so I learned, and I knew right away it was something.”

A.J. continued to hit milestones as he got older, including playing a bat mitzvah for $20 when he was 12, starting to tour when he was 16 and playing sessions on piano for “heroes” of his when he was 17.

His websitestates that he toured with legends including B.B. King and Ray Charles before he turned 21. Over the years, he’s also performed with Willie Nelson, the Neville Brothers and more. He has also cowritten songs with Leon Russell and Gary Nicholson.

Over the course of his career, A.J. has released 10 studio albums that showcase his genre-bending style, which includes blues, jazz, pop, soul and rock and roll. While he also plays the guitar, A.J. has become known as a piano player and vocalist.

He didn’t start performing his father’s music until later in life

A.J. Croce performs at The Knitting Factory on October 5, 2004 in Hollywood, California.Vince Bucci/Getty Images

Vince Bucci/Getty Images

For more than two decades of his career, A.J. steered clear of performing his father’s music. He told PEOPLE in January 2024 that he “didn’t feel there was integrity capitalizing on his music without making a mark of my own.”

After A.J. carved out his own place in the music industry, he said a turning point for his relationship with his father’s music took place in 2012. At the time, he was at a party celebrating what would have been his dad’s 70th birthday, and in front of the crowd, he performed a handful of the late artist’s classics.

“I thought I was going to have an audience of people sitting with their arms crossed like a classical critic, studying every note and seeing if I played it exactly like my father," A.J. explained to PEOPLE. “But I discovered it was the opposite.”

He continued, “I had the joy of being able to both connect with something that meant so much to people, and at the same time make it completely alive and new.”

A.J. has toured the country with his Croce Plays Croce act, including a tour continuing into 2024 that celebrates the 50th Anniversary of his father’s final two albums. The performance includes a set comprised of Jim’s songs, A.J.’s original music and tuned that served as an influence to both his father and himself.

“I play a different show each night,” he said. “I always open it up to the audience to shout out what they want to hear. I didn’t want the show to be just nostalgia. I wanted it to be living, breathing and vital.”

He was married for over 20 years and has two children

A.J. Croce and Marlo Gordon Croce on their wedding day.A.J. Croce/X

A.J. Croce/X

A.J. was married to his wife, Marlo Gordon Croce, for more than two decades.The couple wedin August 1994 and were married for 24 years before Marlo died in 2018 of a heart virus.

After his wife’s death, A.J. released a music video for his song “Cures Like Medicine,” whichhe said on social mediawas a “thank you note” to his late wife.

“For 28 years I had a muse in my life,” he wrote. “She was always honest about my work and never hesitated to say that she loved or didn’t love something I wrote. She was a musical encyclopedia and understood references that only the most educated of critics could catch.”

A.J. added that the song was the last one he wrote for his 2017 albumJust Like Medicine.He saidthat, at the time, it was a “love letter to my best friend.”

“When she passed away suddenly of a rare illness, I felt lost,” he further explained. “It’s taken time for me to be able to feel creative again. I felt that I needed to send her a posthumous love letter in gratitude for the life we shared.”

A.J. and Marlo welcomed two children during their marriage: a daughter, Camille, and a son, Elijah.

Not much is known about A.J.’s children, but he told theLudington Daily Newsin March 2024 that his son was pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles, while his daughter was not interested at all in a career in the arts, explaining, “I think she prefers to have more stability.”

source: people.com